Azealia Banks Likens Herself To Kanye West

"Kanye is a genius," Banks said in an interview with ELLE. "Kanye and I are like the same person, but boy and girl. We’re pulling from the same cloud, the same inspiration. We’re both Geminis, we’re the two premier avant-gardists in Hip Hop music. It’s just me and him. I think our consciousnesses are swirling around each other in some weird kind of way."

During the interview, Banks also spoke about living in New York.

"I live in Washing Heights where I get a lot of bang for my buck," Banks said. "My dollar goes a long way. I’ve got a huge four-bedroom apartment for the same price that I would pay to live in a box in SoHo. I live in a really thick Hispanic neighborhood so I can play my music loud because they love their music. There’s no knocking on my door telling me to turn my music down."

"It’s muscle memory, when you’ve done something over and over and over," she said. "When I’m writing stuff that’s really fast, I’ll speed the beat down to maybe 4 or 5 BPM, rap it at a different pace then speed it up."

Banks' interview can be read in ELLE magazine's December issue, which is in stores.